MANUSCRIPTS AND THE
RECEIVED TEXT, TRANSLATIONS AND VERSIONS
The
earliest copy of Paul’s letters date from around 200 AD, nearly 150 years after
Paul wrote his letters. The earliest full manuscripts of the gospels come from
about the same time, although some fragments of manuscripts have been
identified from an earlier date. One of those fragments is P 52 (a small segment
of John 18) in 125 AD.
Even
our relatively full manuscripts from around the year 200 AD are not preserved
intact. Pages and entire books were lost from them before they were discovered
and it is not until the 4th century (nearly 300 years after the NT
was written) that we find complete mss of all its books. After the 4th
and 5th centuries, copies of the NT became far more common.
There
are now about 5800 Greek copies of all or part of the NT ranging from tiny
scraps of a verse or two to massive ones containing all 27 books. These copies
range in date from the 2nd down to the invention of the printing
press in the 15th century.
All
kinds of materials were used for writing – stones, metals, terracotta, waxed
tablets of wood and ivory, pottery remains (ostraka). But the main materials
were papyrus, parchment, paper. And it is on for writing on these that the mss
were preserved.
Forms of manuscripts
They
were either in the form of scroll-volumen or as a square book, quadratics.
Individual sheets of parchments or papers were used for short documents such as
letters and for longer texts. They were joined together so as to make a scroll
about 10 m in length,
Classification
The
Greek manuscripts are classified partly according to the materials from which
they were made, partly according their script and partly according their use
for which they were intended.
The
first step towads a standardization of nomenclature was taken up by a Swiss
scholar Johann Jakob Wettstein who, in his two volume edition of the NT
published in 1751/52 employed capital letters to designate majuscule and Arabic
numerals to designate minuscule mss.
The
system now in general use was elaborated at the end of the 19th
century by Caspar Rene Gregory who became a professor of the NT at the
University of Leipzig in 1869. Building upon Wettstein’s device, Gregory
divided several other categories of the materials. Gregory divided several
other categories of the materials.
Classification by Gregory
1.
Papyrus:
The manuscripts made of papyrus are listed
separately from those made of parchment. Each of them is commonly referred to
by the Gothic or old English letter ‘P’ followed by a superscript number. A
total of 116 Greek papyri of the NT has been assigned official numbers by
Gregory and his successors. Some of the most important papyri are: Chester Beatty Papyri – p45, p46 and
Bodmer Papyri – p66, p72, p74, p75
2.
Uncials:
The next grouping was based on the style of writing
characterized by somewhat rounded capital letters of majuscules. They were
called uncials, a hyperbolic allusion to their size as if they were an inch
higher. They were designated by capital letters of the Latin and Greek
alphabets and one Hebrew letter ‘Aleph’. However, the number of non majuscules
mss exceeded the Greek and Latin alphabets. Gregory also assigned an Arabic
numeral preceded by a zero. Examples:
i. S.01, N(aleph).01 (Codec
Sinaticus the first uncial, 4th century and it was discovered by
Tishendorf in a monastery in mount Sinai around 1884. It was taken to Leningrad
and transferred to the British Library in London. In addition to the NT it
contains almost all of the OT.
ii.
A.02 (Codex Alexandrinus) from
the 5th century, It is written in Egypt and was possession of
Alexandria since 1098 AD and brought to the British Library in 1628. It was
written in two columns and contains the OT and NT as well as two epistles of
Clement of Rome.
iii.
B.03 (Codex Vaticanus) from 4th
Century. One of the most valuable mss kept in the Vatican Library on Rome
sometimes between 1475 and 1481. It contains the text set out in three columns.
There exist a facsimile (copy) edition of the NT in Milan identified by B03
(IV)
The
mss are again divided according to
their contents:
Gospels
– e
Acts
– a
Catholic
Epistles – c
Pauline
– p
Revelation
– r
3.
Minuscules:
The general characteristics are that they are small
and joined up. In parchment mss, scribes use only uncial letters until the 9th
century and from then on begin to use minuscules and finally minuscules took
over completely in the 11th century. Arabic numerals are assigned
for those mss. Jacob Wettstein in
1751 was the first to designate Arabic numerals, but these systems was somewhat
complicate. Wettstein System was improve by Gregory and other Scholars who
numbered Mss (manuscule), they are now 2911 manuscule Mss. Only about 50 of
these mss contain the whole of the NT.
4.
Lectionaries:
Lectionaries are those mss which have selected
passages for public readings in church services. It usually has two parts: Temporal Or Synaxarion and Sanctoral Or Menologion. The first part
contain reading for each day of the liturgical year which begins on Easter, The
second part give references to those readings as well as some additional
readings which occurs on the Saints Day.
Apart
from few papyrus fragments-P3, P4, P44 the lectionaries were written on
parchment, sometimes on Paper from 13th Century. In either, uncials
or minuscules scripts in case of lectionaries, the mss are classified not
according to their style but according to their contents. It is identified by
the letter L followed by an Arabic numeral. A great majority of the
lectionaries are evangelories (it contains the portions of the four gospels)
and there are around 17000 complete lectonaries on the other hand complete
lectionaries are few in number and are about 200.
The
great maturity of the lectionaries are Evangelaries. They contains the portion
of the four gospels. They are 1700 lectionaries.
L.
1604 (4th century), L 1043 (5th century)
5.
Ostraka
and Talismans: among the Ostraka, which have been so far discovered, of special note is the
uncial 0153 which contains a group of 20 ostraka. They are identified with the
Gothic O and the number 1-20 and they contain narrations of the different
scenes of the passion.
Talismans
are amulets made out of wide variety of metals, wooden or clay tablets, pieces
of papyrus or parchment. Some of them have the inscription of the Lord’s Prayer
and the healing of the sick. They are grouped under uncial 0-152.
Classifications till date:
Papyri
– 116
Majuscules – 310
Minuscules
– 2911
Lectionaries – 2432
Total - 5769
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